Day 53: Sun Room, Morning

[scarefaux]

With breakfast finished and a new acquaintance made, the Scarecrow's mind turned to his other friends. The disappearance of Depth Charge's friend had brought back memories of how he'd felt when Kaiji went missing: helpless, useless, as though he should have and could have done something more to find him. If only he had his brain, then maybe he

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[gargantuanlaugh]

Gant pouted at the cold reception. Everyone was so moody today. "Now that's not a very nice thing to say, Baddo! After all the years we've known one another, that's all you have to say when meeting an ally here?"

How disappointing. It was obvious from how he spoke that Badd had come from a time after Gant's arrest, so Gant didn't try to correct him for not adding 'Chief' before his name. Bothersome. And it could cause trouble down the line. But Badd would be harder to get rid of than little Miss Ema and her Yattawhatsits friend of hers. Should he even risk it? It would probably be best to just remain out of Badd's sight in the future. Unless he could persuade Badd to put those past transgressions to the side while they both fought against the institute. Hmm...

"And you offend me. After being caught so thoroughly, do you believe I would honestly had tried to back out of the proper punishment?" To think Badd thought so little of him to expect Gant would try to get off by pleading insanity. He had respect for law. Had he reached a proper trial before his sudden transfer to Landel's Institute, he would surely have pleaded guilty. He knew there was no stopping justice done, not after Wright had caught him in his own trap.

"Besides," Gant grinned again, unable to help himself, "death row would be a godsend compared to a place like this!" It was true. There had been many times when death had definitely sounded better than all the terror this place could offer. Oh, how innocent it would be for someone to believe otherwise. "I take it you haven't been here long, eh?"

[tasteoftruth]

Gant didn't control his job anymore, in theory there would be minimal punishments for beating the grin off his face...no, Badd had more control than that. But he did believe Gant would try to escape justice, he wouldn't put much past anyone who abused his law enforcement position for personal gain.

Well.

Abused it to cover up murder, anyway. Justified revenge didn't count as personal.

"Shipped in this morning," Badd growled, shrugging one shoulder and turning away from Gant. "Some kind of filing error." Though come to think of it, it had been afternoon when the trial ended. Had he really slept that long or had some outside force coerced him into it? Mental note: check self for needle marks. "If this is better than death row then death row must be cushy. Even with all the crazy people I prefer it to where they used to have me."

It was tempting not to raise any kind of fuss at all and just relax until the system found him again. But that wouldn't be the right thing to do.

[gargantuanlaugh]

Wow, Badd was even more touchy than usual today. He always had been a bit of a sourpuss. Not quite to the extent as Manfred had been, but still, there was a darkness that had hung around him the last few years that surrounded him in an icy cloud. Not that Gant ever complained. All he cared about was results, and Badd did his work well despite his hard shell.

He was severely tempted to give the man a friendly slap on the back, but his common sense and the aura the detective gave off told him that would be a baaaaad idea.

"Oh, fresh off the ship then!" Gant wasn't too surprised. It would be hard to not notice someone with a presence like Badd around. He chuckled and sat back in the seat, making himself comfortable. "Afraid it's not some filing error, though. You've been secreted away just like the rest of us."

He almost wanted to correct the old investigator. Gant hadn't ever stepped foot inside death row as a prisoner, he'd barely even felt the cuffs on his wrists when he woke up here, but better to just let it be.

"You know, if you really wanted the inside scoop on how it compares to death row, you could always ask Manny." He glanced sideways at the detective, curious to see his reaction. "Manny's here, so you can even ask him what death feels like, if you want. Though he might not tell you. He's always been a stick in the mud like that." He kept his voice just as jovial as ever, but this was actually a test. A test to see just what Badd knew or believed. Of course, Badd could think all he wanted. But that wouldn't change facts. Unfortunately.

[tasteoftruth]

Badd's thumb nudged at his upper lip. They didn't give him lollipops anymore but his habitual gestures hadn't gotten the memo yet and his fingers kept trying to twist an intangiable paper stick. Of course his first instinct for a Manny was Coachen (which made Gant's comment unbearably creepy before Badd reminded himself that dead people didn't generally talk) but Coachen was dead and good riddance to him. So 'Manny' was who again, not anyone in the police force, certainly not anyone...

He turned to Gant, aghast. "Manfred von Karma? I thought they stretched his neck out years ago." All right, so maybe Gant was only the second to last person Badd wanted to see here. He gave the room a quick scan, as if to make sure no other foul members of the legal system had crept in, and then settled back on the couch again. As if it mattered, anywhere that wasn't the courtroom would probably be hell to Mr. Perfect Prosecutor, but Badd would have to avoid him too. Or gloat. Actually, gloating sounded like a much better option.

Badd returned to the more relevant part of Gant's comment. "What do you mean, secreted away? Who would want a couple of ex-cops moved from one prison to another?" And what possible tie was there between him and a pair of murderers?

[gargantuanlaugh]

It seemed like his mentioning of von Karma had at least thrown the other man off. Gant took a bit of satisfaction in that. He had so often felt he was losing his touch in surprising people here. So, maybe just giving surprising information didn't completely count, but it was satisfying nonetheless!

It was Gant's turn to be surprised shortly after. Years? Really? "W-well, only about a month ago, my time." He chuckled nervously, hoping the man wasn't being literal. What a thing for an old colleague to say about another. But then again, Badd hadn't held the same relationship with Manfred as Gant had. Which reminded him, he hadn't really gotten to plan any investigations with him here yet. Last time he had saw old Manfred had been two days ago. Surely... surely the old goat hadn't been released. Hmm. Some snooping was in order.

And another surprise! "Ex-cops, you say?" As in plural? Baddo, Baddo, Baddo, what have you been doing since my time?

Right, back to his question. "No one really knows for sure why we've all been given aliases and brought here. I've met a slew of odd characters in the last few days. Naturally, one would think the Head Doctor was trying to gain something by holding us for ransom. That sort of thing. But that doesn't seem to be the case."

[tasteoftruth]

'My time'? Gant was making less sense than usual. Badd shook his head scornfully. "Pretty sure half the people here deserve to be here. I had to spend breakfast reassuring some teenager that his waffles were real." That didn't mean you couldn't paint a few oranges red and hide them in an apple bowl, of course. A loony bin was even better than prison for making sure your prisoner was never believed no matter what they said or how loudly they said it.

It was not a good place to hold people for ransom, of course, not when the windows weren't even barred. Gant had the same knowledge and skills Badd did, he should have tried an escape by now. von Karma, too, if he'd ever actually been here, and anyone who had both sanity and strength left. If Gant was right it was a common occurrence and a large enough group could easily overpower the nurses. So...why was Gant still here?

Heh. Badd again teased the invisible lollipop stick, this time with an air of smugness. "Yeah. Ex. Haven't you been reading the papers?"

[gargantuanlaugh]

Gant had to laugh at Badd's first few comments. He clapped his large hands together, managing to keep his giggles to a minimum. "Ho ho ho! Oh, right you are, Baddo! Some people here certainly do belong in a mental institution." He'd met a few himself, but he'd learned in time that even the crazier ones were probably saner than the Head Doctor at least. And Manny already so properly referred to him as the 'Head Lunatic.' Badd would learn that himself soon enough.

Gant sighed and shook his head. He would have never guessed such a devoted man to the law would get himself into enough trouble to get arrested. Or at least that's what Gant assumed had happened to Badd since he had mentioned the press. Retiring old detectives didn't usually make headline news.

"'Fraid I haven't been reading them, not since the morning of the last day in Lana's trial. And that was about, oh, five days ago." He hummed in contemplation, picking at the bangs falling in his face. "That's the last day I remember before coming here, anyway. And just so you know, you shouldn't expect to get the chance to read a newspaper here. You can't find anything here with dates on it, or the time even for that matter. It's rather bothersome." He shrugged. "I'm not even rightly sure if we're in America anymore, and this certainly isn't California as far as I can tell."

Now then, time to see how Badd reacted to that kind of information.

[tasteoftruth]

"Amnesia. That's really your gambit." Badd was almost stunned by how outright cliche it was. He shook his head at how low his former superior was willing to crawl to get out of trouble. At least Badd had accepted his fate with dignity--embraced it, even. If retirement had been forced upon him before he'd completed his mission, he'd intended to turn himself over anyway in the hopes the information he'd gathered would be of use to someone.

If they had needed the thief of truth back during KG-8, they needed him even more after it became crippled. Between von Karma, Gant, the embassy and whatever the heck had happened with Edgeworth, it seemed like things were far worse than Faraday could have imagined. The system was rotten to the core, and the only way it seemed to be getting fixed was by tearing out the corrupt organs piece by piece.

"Sorry to say justice's been moving on without you, chief," he said, with a quirk of his lips that was almost a smirk. "Remember that thief I was chasing? The Yatagarasu?"

Badd wasn't normally a gloater. Showing off was for people who had something to prove. But he wanted to gloat, wanted to tell Gant what he'd been hiding under the very nose of the so-called paragon of justice. Really, they'd done almost the same thing. Badd had just done it right.

[gargantuanlaugh]

Gant almost laughed again when Badd assumed wrongly that he was faking amnesia. Almost. But not quite. He contented himself with just chuckling. Of course, it was entirely possible there was a point that Gant couldn't remember between his last day in the courthouse and his first day in the institute, but he didn't believe it was any longer than however long it had taken to transport him here. And with how their bodies ended up back in bed in an instant, even after traveling so far away from their rooms every night, who knew how long that transportation could have taken. It was immeasurable, unless you happened to be the Head Doctor no doubt.

"Think whatever you want about me," Gant said, offering the man another shrug. "I won't back down when I say the last thing I remember was that last day in court. Just walked out of the courthouse and..." He held out his hands. What else was there to say?

"Has it now?" Ugh, that irked him. He kept a smile on his face, but did he ever want to just punch the other man in the nose for that comment. If they'd been back at the precinct and he'd still be chief, Gant would have taken Badd up to the office for one of his infamous pipe organ recital punishments. Sure, sure, he had been sure himself that justice would continue on without him, at least as long as they had Wright on the side of justice. But that didn't mean Badd had to rub it in that his reign was a thing of the past.

"Hmm, the Yatawhatsit?" Gant feigned a confused look, more to hide his surprise. Well, well, well. The truth behind that might finally be revealed, more than little Kay Faraday had those few nights before. How exciting. He forced a look of acknowledgment and beamed. "Oh, yes! Now I remember! The thief left a sort of calling card with a special mark on it. Stole a lot of information. I think someone suspected of being the Yatagatasu ending up dying, or something like that." He was pretty vague on the details. It felt like it had been years since he'd been able to look at any police records. He could use a refresher course, but it was coming back. Bit by bit.

He quirked an eyebrow at the other man. "Why do you ask?"

[tasteoftruth]

If Gant had still been chief Badd wouldn't have shown so much arrogance to his face. He kept up the boundaries of respect for his superiors, no matter how despicable. Now, of course, he was a free agent and didn't owe respect to anyone. If Gant wanted to play games Badd wasn't going to play along. His bile rose at the casual dismissal of Faraday's death as 'something like that', but he wasn't going to rise to the bait.

"They caught it. Or one of it, specifically. The reason the police couldn't get their hands on the Yatagarasu was that it wasn't a 'he' or a 'she'. It was a 'they'. One was Byrne Faraday--he was the guy accused, a better prosecutor than von Karma could hope to be." His prosecutor. His friend. A less frequent star of Badd's nightmares after Yew's belated arrest.

"One was the backstabbing bitch of a defense attorney who killed him." He pronounced the epitithet as if spitting it. Hell was too good for the nameless worm.

"And one was the Yatagarasu's man on the inside. A detective who made sure the Yatagarasu never left a shred of evidence behind..." Badd made a plucking motion at his lips, as if extracting a lollipop for dramatic effect. The slight upturn of his lips turned into a full-on smirk.

"Ever."

[gargantuanlaugh]

Gant was only mildly surprised to hear the Yatagarasu had been a team rather than a single perpetrator. Really, it made sense given one person's mistakes could be taken care of by another if there was at least one other team memeber. But three, that was a magic number. You had not only one extra pair of eyes to scan the details, but two. No wonder the thief had never been caught... until now, it seemed.

So one of them had been Faraday. Gant could have told Badd that before, since little Kay had already supplied that information to him a few nights ago. But then the defense attorney that was suspected of the murder (and never brought to justice after, if Gant remembered right) was also a part of the team. And then, well, Badd made it sound like he was the one that had been the detective behind the Yatagarasu, but that couldn't be true. It had to be someone else. Badd wasn't one who would ever take up that kind of double-agent job...

"You're kidding, right? You..." Oh. But Badd was the highest detective chosen to work the Yatagarasu cases. He had every opportunity imaginable to screw with the evidence and fix the crime scenes without anyone else the wiser. Why, Gant had held that privilege a few times himself in his day, and he certainly had worked it to his advantage.

Gant couldn't stand it. He threw back his head and laughed, unabashed. A few of the patients around them stopped and stared, but then moved a few paces further away rather than tried to listen in. That suited Gant just fine. Badd's tale, it was like some cruel joke that just ended up being true, and how cruel it was. "Ho ho ho, oh, Baddo, you certainly know how to tell a good story. I have to admit, I'm impressed."

[tasteoftruth]

Badd had to chuckle along with him. He wasn't sure whether to be pleased or offended that such a...capable manipulator of the justice system was impressed by his ten years of flawless cover-ups.

"Faraday and Yew committed the thefts and I made sure to become the head detective for the case so I could destroy our tracks before anyone else got to the scene of the crime. It was just doing what you were doing, but in the name of a good cause instead of grabbing power and stepping on your friends and comrades to get there."

What Gant did was unthinkable, despicable. What Badd had done he'd done for justice that couldn't be gained in court. If there's been any other way he'd have taken it, even someone as honest and idealistic as Gumshoe could understand why they'd taken the path of the Yatagarasu. But his eventual arrest was justice too...not for the thefts, Badd had to admit to himself, he had no desire to be punished for a little B&E. It was his failure of duty and living on while better men were cut down that he considered his greatest crimes.

...maybe he did need to get a little therapy.

Badd's tone turned derogatory and he glared at Gant in disgust. "And I didn't have to kill anyone to get away with it." Put a gun to Prosecutor Edgeworth's back, maybe, but he'd gotten over it. "Were they even all guilty, those men you put away? Or are you as bad as von Karma?"

[gargantuanlaugh]

Badd certainly was in a confessing mood today. Maybe being arrested made them all become loose lipped and resigned. Gant had definitely been the same after Wright had caught him, though being locked up here had made him rethink going too quietly if there was a chance for escape. Why deny the world the chance to bring back one of the best crime-solving minds available? All he needed was a new start.

Gant didn't much like how the old detective was insinuating he only cared about power and justice be damned. Well, Gant wasn't going to argue with him. He'd already let loose some steam on Dent about that at breakfast. He could handle those kinds of remarks again for a time. It wasn't like he really cared what Badd thought, anyway.

The ex-chief fought a roll of his eyes and merely gave Badd a gentle smile before answering the man's accusative questions. "Now, now, you don't honestly think I would put away just anyone, do you? I may have... bent the rules now and then, and yes, I had to take out a roadblock or two on the way. But I wholeheartedly believe that every man or woman I brought to justice was guilty of their crimes."

And that was the haunting, chilling truth.

[tasteoftruth]

Entirely possible he was lying, but Badd didn't sense he was. He could easily believe that Gant considered Goodman and Marshall collateral damage in the pursuit of fighting crime, people had reconciled worse ideological dissonance. "Except for the crimes you committed, of course" he pointed out. That serial killer guy (Badd couldn't recall the name off the top of his head) certainly deserved the noose, but Lana hadn't. Badd couldn't bring himself to accuse someone who'd done for her sister what he'd do for his 'niece'.

It was hard not to make the comparison between himself and Gant, both officers of the law who'd broken their oath and thought it was the right thing to do. Gant probably felt no remorse over his deeds and regret hung over Badd's head like a dark shroud every day of his life, but a criminal's tender feelings never had anything to do with their guilt. Badd consoled himself with thinking that at least he'd stayed true to his principles, if not his duty.

"You know, I always did want to see the look on your face when you found out what I'd been up to," he mused, idly stroking the stubble of his cheek with his thumb. "Too bad you beat me to the handcuffs."

[gargantuanlaugh]

Badd seemed to accept that he wasn't lying. That was nice. Not necessary, but nice. Still, he seemed adamant that Gant was in the wrong with what he had done. Well... maybe Gant had been a bad boy at times. He regretted Marshall's and Goodman's deaths to an extent. They were necessary at the time, though, so he couldn't rightly say he would never have done it given the chance to do things again. He merely shrugged. What was done was done.

"Still got to see it though, didn't you?" Gant grinned widely again, chuckling. "Satisfied, Baddo? Can't say I'm altogether thrilled to know you're not quite the same virtuous crime-fighter I'd thought you were. But... I guess I have no reason to complain." Badd had always done his work well. Other than the Yatagarasu cases, at least as far as Gant could remember, Badd was always on top of things and doing his best to make sure they got their man. Still, always sad to see someone sink to the level of criminals.

"Speaking of handcuffs, when was the last date you remember, Baddo? Remember your trial, by any chance?" Gant was actually more concerned about the date than anything. He just wanted to get a feel for Badd's time. Was he caught shortly after Gant had been, or had it been years after? It was hard to tell given the circumstances. Still, Badd looked relatively unchanged since their last run-in before Lana's trial. Those grizzled old detectives never changed much.

[tasteoftruth]

"My trial was a few weeks ago. March 2019, if you're still playing the amnesia card at me. They slammed the entire thing through in a matter of weeks, from the ring boss on down." Probably skittish of the same divine intervention that had saved them during KG-8. Badd hadn't relaxed until the gavel went down for the last time.

Badd's sharp gaze flickered across the room, looking over the patients who seemed so resigned to their existence and the nurses distractedly keeping a watch over them. "So why anyone would want me out of the way, when all the shouting's over and I've given every shred of testimony I can, is anyone's guess." Motive, motive, there always needed to be a motive no matter what that idiot Zheng Fa kid seemed to think. Any means were possible with enough resources and the ring was huge, but revenge wasn't enough reason for an operation of this magnitude.

He wondered what the outside world was thinking about him. Was he marked as an escaped convict or had the car gone off a tragic and convenient bridge?